In April 2010, Mary-Jane Rivers interviewed Judith Timpany.

At the end of this article are links to Judith's workshop presentations from the

Community Trusts Conference held in Napier, NZ, in February 2010

Judith Timpany is Chief Executive of the Whanganui Community Foundation Inc. She has 20 years experience in the charitable sector in a broad range of community focused activities, including three years as a Whanganui City Councillor, Chair of Philanthropy New Zealand (currently a board member), and membership of WINGS CF (an international grant maker's body). She has also held several corporate directorships.

Q: What led you into a community development approach?

There was a real mix of reasons. In some ways it was intuitive and by accident, but as well we looked at the gap between the community profile and those organisations accessing funding in Whanganui. The Whanganui demographic profile shows large areas of deprivation but most funding, prior to 1997, went to those who were better off and knew how to access resources and power.

We also held a conference with provocative speakers who really stimulated local discussion. It was a real buzz and led to us organising a meeting six weeks later where we listened to what people wanted. Out of this regular networking meetings have been held, often over lunch, where people from different sectors relax enough to share information and begin to trust each other. It became clear that people wanted to promote:

• a concept of community. (As a result of this the Foundation decided to pay for advertising space in the local newspaper to share information)
• professional development
• networking

So, in some ways a community development approach started as a marketing exercise and then became community development.

Q: Challenges?

There have been a few!!

On my own!
The first time I met other funders I was treated as though I was from another planet. Compared with project or facility funding there wasn't much understanding on why it is useful for communities to lead their own development. Certainly this caused me to do some self reflection. It was often an isolated position to be in.

Upsetting the Power Balance
People with power were irritated... More ‘establishment' people saw bricks and mortar projects bringing lasting benefit to communities. The trustees of the Foundation decided that long term, sustainable, inter-generational change was more important. This meant that when funding was limited there were fewer capital projects funded. The first priority was professional development as the most effective way of benefiting as much of the community as possible.

Partnering??
Around issues of equity I have come to the conclusion that no matter how hard a funder tries there are always power issues with applicant and funder relationships. I am not sure if a partnership is possible with such a power imbalance, and finding ways to minimise the power imbalance and develop quality, trusting relationships is important.
When you are a funder you have to have extraordinarily good relationships before people will tell you exactly what they want and think. And then you need to be open to experimentation, including when not everything goes according to plan, to actively learn from experience so budding ‘trust' doesn't disappear.

Q: Highlights?

Fabulous Trustees
We have been very lucky to have a group of trustees prepared to trust and invest in this idea.

Seeing the social capital building
We invite people from all sectors and parts of community to lunch and to talk about:
• Interesting developments or ideas
• Challenges
• Biggest issue for the community

Staff and trustees keep ‘their ears wide open and mouth tight shut'. These events help make connections. They are really helpful in getting people talking to each other who wouldn't normally get the opportunity to meet. A number of really interesting relationships breaking down of stereotypes.

Having an external evaluation undertaken
In 2002 Genevieve Timmons, the author of the recently published, Toolkit for Grantmakers evaluated the work of the Whanganui Community Foundation. In the evaluation community organisations identified that the Foundation's support of professional development, along with being able to sit down and chat in a way that was non threatening, were higher priorities than grants.

Growing Interest
I no longer feel a voice in the wilderness. In the early 2000s most of the supportive thinking came from other countries. I was fortunate to be awarded a Social Entrepreneur fellowship taking me to Canada and other places, and to participate in international philanthropic conferences
But this year 40 people turned up, and actively participated, in the Community Trusts Conference workshop. Five years ago I would have been lucky to get 10 people.

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